


A Homecoming Gift

by ParacausalJengram



Series: The Bird and The Bolt [3]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: #crimsondays2021, #destinycomwriting, Drunken Flirting, F/M, Flirting, Fluff, More like hangover flirting but
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:28:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29388432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ParacausalJengram/pseuds/ParacausalJengram
Summary: After reforging Hawkmoon, Crow and Asteryn decide they deserve a celebration. Unfortunately for their Ghosts, that celebration involves an entire bottle of whiskey.---Fluffy early-days relationship-forming between my Awoken Hunter, Asteryn, and the softest boy, Crow. With inspiration from  Hawkmoon's lore and One Exile To Another.
Relationships: Female Guardian/Crow, Female Guardian/The Crow, Female Guardian/Uldren Sov
Series: The Bird and The Bolt [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2162769
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	A Homecoming Gift

**Author's Note:**

> Some lines directly reference Hawkmoon's lore, One Exile to Another, and Two-Drink Minimum. I haven't written fic in years, yet I start playing Destiny 2 and suddenly I'm writing self-indulgent OC/NPC fluff. Not mad about it. First of... many fics documenting this growing relationship, as well as Asteryn's adventures with her fireteam and her mentors. 
> 
> A late entry for Day 7: Gift of Crimson Days 2021 hosted by @LoreweaversZine and @DestinyComWri on Twitter! Follow me @ParacausalJeni for Destiny thoughts, art retweets, and fic updates, I guess.

“I think we’ve earned a celebration,” Asteryn grinned, holding up Hawkmoon so it glinted in the green-tinged light. 

“I have something in mind,” Crow said, smiling. “I’ve been holding on to a gift for a special occasion. I’d say this is special. And I’ll share it with you on one condition.” 

She raised an eyebrow at him. “I’d think all the shooting I just did would be enough.” 

“It is, yes, but I have one more favor to ask.” His smile was somehow brighter, and it made her smile, too. 

“You’re pressing your luck, but try me.” 

“I’ll share my gift with you,” he said, seeming to draw out the sentence to savor it, “if you tell me the story behind your nickname while we share it, star-eyes.” His own glowing eyes seemed to flash with mirth, and with Traveler-promised triumph. 

Asteryn couldn’t help it--she erupted in laughter. “No promises. But let’s see what exactly this gift is, first. Maybe you’ve earned it.”

The gift turned out to be a bottle of remarkably fancy whiskey, given to him by an Exo Titan who stumbled upon his nest and struck up a friendship--or at least tried to, like one might try to become friends with a skittish stray cat. By the time he returned to their meeting space, right outside the path that led to the shard of the Traveler, Asteryn had built a small fire, and he sank onto a fallen log next to it. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever had alcohol before, that I remember,” she said, taking the bottle from him and turning it so it caught the firelight. 

“Neither have I, outside of two truly vile drinks at an Eliksni bar. But it seems fitting.” 

She passed the bottle back and grinned. “It does. To our victory.”

Glint shifted left and right, restless, as Crow opened the bottle with a _pop_. “I’m not sure this is a good idea. You’re basically drinking poison.” 

Crow gave his Ghost a smirk. “Then isn’t it a good thing I have you here to cure me?” He punctuated the question with a decisive swig from the bottle, which rapidly turned into a sputtering cough. Once he regained his composure, he looked at the bottle with surprise. “Is it supposed to burn? This is nothing like what I had at the Empty Tank.” 

“Yes,” Glint sighed, resigned. “If you insist on drinking it, you’re supposed to sip it.” 

Tentatively, Crow tried again, taking a small sip as his Ghost instructed. “It’s warm,” he said, after a moment, and passed the bottle to Asteryn. 

“I’m with Glint on this,” Sheyd said. “I don’t think you should drink that.” 

But Asteryn laughed as she took the bottle. “I’m sure it’s a bad idea. But it’s a fun one.” 

…

When Asteryn finally pried her eyes open, she immediately wished she hadn’t. She was lying with her head on the fallen tree they had been drinking on, and the world was spinning far too much considering she was lying still. Part of her was cold--the fire had gone out long ago. A bright blue light filled her field of vision and she winced, shutting her eyes tight and holding out her hands to shield herself.

“We did try to warn you,” a sanctimonious, familiar voice chirped at her. Sheyd was already proving himself insufferable about this. She would’ve swatted him off his perch atop her head if she weren’t so focused on holding the world still by sheer force of will.

A weight on her leg moved with a groan. “What _happened_ … did I die again? Am I dying right now?”

Tentatively, she cracked one eye open again. Crow, his hood down and his hands pressed to his eyes, must’ve passed out with her leg as a pillow. She wasn’t going to let herself think too hard about how he ended up on her lap. 

Glint, on his chest, made a derisive noise. “No, you didn’t die and you aren’t dying. You just got drunk. You’re experiencing a hangover.”

“Can’t you fix this?” He groaned. 

“Of course,” Glint replied, almost primly. “But I don’t think I will just yet. You should listen to your Ghosts, both of you.”

All at once, Crow seemed to realize what--who--he was lying on. Faintly pink, he tried to sit up quickly, groaned, and seemed to immediately regret moving at all, letting himself fall back onto her lap. “This is not how I saw this going,” he mumbled. But despite the groan, and the blush, and the headache, he still had a smile on his face. 

Asteryn only remembered bits and pieces of the previous night, but what she did remember made her smile, too. With a weak laugh, she shifted so she could look down at Crow. “Tell me if I dreamed this or not. Did you reenact the fight with the bottle as a sword and your hand as a sidearm?” 

“I will neither confirm nor deny, star-eyes,” he replied, gazing back up at her. He reached up to tuck a strand of her hair that had come loose from her braid behind her ear. “It’s more fun to think of you dreaming about me.” 

She blushed, eyes flashing. But before she had a chance to respond, a dry laugh interrupted, causing both Lightbearers to swivel in the direction of the sound. Their Ghosts had sprung into action to heal the warm, hazy traces of alcohol from their systems in preparation of a threat, but they needn’t have worried. Standing a few paces away was a familiar form--the Warlock Osiris. 

“Am I interrupting?” He asked. Even though his veil concealed his face, both Asteryn and Crow could tell he was smirking at them. Both scrambled to their feet, Crow leaping up first, pulling Asteryn up with him. 

Sheyd very clearly _snickered_. She glared at him, but the glare was toothless. 

“No, you aren’t _interrupting_ anything,” Crow said quickly. Osiris nodded towards where he still loosely held Asteryn’s hand, one eyebrow raised. Their hands sprang apart like matching ends of a magnet.

Now both their Ghosts were laughing. Traitors. 

“For expediency’s sake, I will pretend to believe you,” Osiris replied. “I came to discuss bringing you to the City. I can come back another time.”

Quickly, Asteryn held up her hands, taking a few steps towards Osiris. “Not necessary! You two talk. I think _I’m_ the one really interrupting here, that sounds much more important,” she grinned. If her grin seemed a bit too bright, if her skin a bit too pink, she pretended it was a trick of the light. Twirling towards Crow, she held out her hand. Hawkmoon appeared in a shower of light. “I think you should hang onto this, though, not me. Call it a homecoming gift.” 

He smiled, taking the weapon. “If you insist. But you can always borrow it--we did reforge it together.” 

“I’ll let you know. But you know me--I’m more of a bow kind of Guardian.” She turned back to Osiris. The man intimidated her, that much was undeniable. But he also believed in Crow, and for that reason she knew he was an ally--maybe even a friend, eventually, if the dour man made friends. “Take care of him?” She asked, smiling, knowing that he would. Still, she felt relieved when he nodded. “See you both in the City, then.” 

“Until then,” Osiris agreed, inclining his head towards her as she broke away into the trees, her Ghost’s voice telling her where to join up with her fireteam fading with the distance. Looking over to Crow, Osiris said, “Well. It seems that, no matter what, you know you have two Guardians on your side.” As he walked past Crow, he clapped him on the shoulder, once, before moving steadily into the trees in the opposite direction Asteryn had gone. “Come with me. I have new clothes for you on my ship, and we can discuss what we shall do as we wait for nightfall.”

Crow nodded, jogging to catch up with Osiris as he led them away towards his dropship. He had questions--so many questions--for Osiris, about what the City would be like, about what he’d need to do to stay safe, about what he might do first, about how he could _help_.

But first, he had a question for Glint. “Did anything… happen… between us?” Crow asked his Ghost softly, as they followed Osiris back to his ship. If Osiris overhead, he had the decency to know that the question wasn’t for him.

“You mean physically? No. Although Sheyd and I both expected something would. We made bets.” He orbited Crow’s head thoughtfully, then laughed. “Oh! But she did explain her nickname, as promised. But if you don’t remember that, you’ll have to ask her again. She made me promise not to tell you if you didn’t remember.”

Crow sighed, relieved. That was something he could ask again easily. “Good,” he said with a nod, then turned his attention back to Osiris, finally letting his questions bubble up and spill out like an eager child on the first day of school. 

It wasn’t that he didn’t want anything to happen--Crow was increasingly sure he did, and that Asteryn did, too. But he was already plagued by things he did that he could never remember. He refused to let his first kiss with Asteryn be one of them.


End file.
